Walk-ins Flood Clinics For Screenings

Walk-ins Flood Clinics To Test For Depression

October 11, 1991|By FRANK SPENCER-MOLLOY ; Courant Medical Writer

National Depression Screening Day on Thursday was a complete success locally, officials said, as scores of people turned out at two area hospitals to see whether they may be among the millions of Americans who need help fighting the illness.

By mid-afternoon the University of Connecticut Health Center's outpatient psychiatry clinic in Farmington was swamped by walk-ins, adding to the crush of 80 appointments booked Wednesday, said Dr. Neil Liebowitz, assistant professor of psychiatry at UConn.

In the first two hours of the six-hour screening, sponsored nationally by the American Psychiatric Association, workers had evaluated 50 people, and "a good majority are probably meeting the criteria for major depression," Liebowitz said. When the session ended at 7 p.m., 122 people had been evaluated.

Expecting the large turnout, more UConn faculty and specialists from the Institute of Living in Hartford had volunteered to help, Liebowitz said.

Also, 55 people were seen at Baystate Medical Center's clinic in Springfield, "about all the people it could accommodate," hospital spokesman Keith O'Connor said.

One man, after filling out questionnaires and meeting with a mental health professional at UConn, said, "I guess I wanted to find out if this was real. I've been thinking about seeing someone for a long time, and this seemed a relatively painless way to do it." Liebowitz said the turnout represented "everything, from women in their 20s to people as old as their 80s." A conference room set aside for the survey was crowded with men in business suits and others poring over the questionnaires.

Because the survey did not delve into personal matters, Liebowitz said, it was hard to say for sure whether the recession might help explain some of the turnout. But, he said, a few people had left written comments about their employment.

After people filled out questionnaires, Liebowitz scored the papers. A mental health professional met with each person for a few minutes and suggested whether each should see one of the doctors on a referral list. Each person was then invited to watch a videotape of a recent ABC News program on clinical depression and treatments.